the king-maker! and, day by day, the untimely streaks of gray
showed more and more amidst the raven curls of the strong man.

CHAPTER III. FURTHER VIEWS INTO THE HEART OF MAN, AND THE CONDITIONS OF
POWER.

But woe to any man who is called to power with exaggerated expectations
of his ability to do good! Woe to the man whom the populace have
esteemed a popular champion, and who is suddenly made the guardian of
law! The Commons of England had not bewailed the exile of the good
earl simply for love of his groaning table and admiration of his huge
battle-axe,--it was not merely either in pity, or from fame, that his
"name had sounded in every song," and that, to use the strong expression
of the chronicler, the people "judged that the sun was clearly taken
from the world when he was absent."

They knew him as one who had ever sought to correct the abuses of power,
to repair the wrongs of the poor; who even in war had forbidden his
knights to slay the common men. He was regarded, therefore, as a
reformer; and wonderful indeed were the things, proportioned to his
fame and his popularity, which he was expected to accomplish; and his
thorough knowledge of the English character, and experience of every
class,--especially the lowest as the highest,--conjoined with the vigour
of his robust understanding, unquestionably enabled him from the very
first to put a stop to the lawless violences which had disgraced the
rule of Edward. The infamous spoliations of the royal purveyors ceased;
the robber-like excesses of the ruder barons and gentry were severely
punished; the country felt that a strong hand held the reins of power.
But what is justice when men ask miracles? The peasant and mechanic were
astonished that wages were not doubled, that bread was not to be had for
asking, that the disparities of life remained the same,--the rich still
rich, the poor still poor. In the first days of the revolution, Sir
Geoffrey Gates, the freebooter, little comprehending the earl's merciful
policy, and anxious naturally to turn a victory into its accustomed
fruit of rapine and pillage, placed himself at the head of an armed mob,
marched from Kent to the suburbs of London, and, joined by some of the
miscreants from the different Sanctuaries, burned and pillaged, ravished
and slew. The earl quelled this insurrection with spirit and ease;
[Hall, Habington] and great was the praise he received thereby. But
all-pervading is the sympathy the poor